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00:00 24's Bénédicte Pavia has been covering this story for us at the High Court in London.
00:04 She joins me now live from there.
00:06 Bénédicte, Julian Assange can now pursue this appeal.
00:09 Now what does that mean exactly and how big a reprieve is this for him really?
00:14 Well, let me pick up on the word that you just used there, reprieve, because in fact
00:20 this is a reprieve and a delay.
00:22 We don't have that final, when one reads the judgment carefully, that final go ahead that
00:28 Julian Assange can appeal.
00:32 What we know is that he's not going to be extradited immediately and what we know is
00:37 that this is a victory for the moment for the Assange team.
00:40 So concretely, what this ruling by the two judges in the High Court here in London have
00:46 said is that Julian Assange will have to face a further wait to see whether, if, he can
00:53 appeal against his extradition to the United States on these 18 charges relating to the
00:58 publication of what is highly confidential military and diplomatic cables, over 700,000
01:05 of them pertaining to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
01:10 These two judges said that they would give the United States government three weeks,
01:14 so until the 16th of April, to provide assurances that Assange can rely on the First Amendment
01:20 to the US Constitution, which we know protects free speech, that he will not be prejudiced
01:26 at a trial or sentenced by reason of his Australian nationality, nor that he can be sentenced
01:32 to death if convicted.
01:34 Now if the US do not appeal, well present assurances, then that is when we will find
01:40 out and we believe that would be on the 20th of May, is the date given by the two judges,
01:45 that indeed Julian Assange can continue this legal judiciary battle that he has been fighting
01:52 for 13 years here in the United Kingdom and go ahead with an appeal.
01:58 So the judges we know also in fact dismissed some grounds of the application to appeal,
02:03 including Mr Assange's argument that he was prosecuted because of his political opinions
02:08 and we just heard his wife there saying she is astounded at this delay, astounded at this
02:13 decision.
02:14 Benedict, this case is really a first of its kind, it's so unique in so many ways,
02:19 I mean there are issues of freedom of expression, espionage, national security, transparency,
02:24 tell us a bit more about all of that.
02:29 Yes and all of those individually are obviously crucial, crucial to transparency, crucial
02:35 to accountability, crucial to holding power to account, certainly in democracies that
02:42 the United Kingdom of course and the US are.
02:45 But of course this ruling, this judgement, the repercussions of this are indeed pertaining
02:51 to whether it's highly classified documents and leaks, whether they are received by a
02:57 journalist or a media organisation, sought by a media organisation or individual and
03:03 how much we can publish and what the consequences of publication of leaks.
03:07 Of course what the Assange team is saying is that Julian Assange and his supporters
03:11 say he's a hero, he's a hero trying to expose US war crimes, war crimes they say
03:17 that have gone unpunished pertaining to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
03:22 This is categorically denied by the US who say no, he's endangered the lives of informants
03:29 and that that is absolutely crucial that this be judged and punished, that this cannot go
03:36 unpunished.
03:37 So the battle clearly is going to continue but meanwhile organisations like Reporters
03:42 Without Borders, NUJ, National Union of Journalists here in the United Kingdom and across the
03:48 world are saying this could actually mean that journalists, if this Assange is extradited
03:55 to the US, that any country could reach across the world to have a journalist or media organisation
04:01 punished in some way, an individual extradited to their countries to be judged before the
04:08 country's judiciary and that this is really would send a chilling effect and would not
04:14 be good news for accountability, for transparency.
04:17 So very serious concerns not just by Julian Assange's team but by journalism organisations
04:23 across the world and as Stella Assange, his wife, often says he's being really accused
04:29 of journalism.